A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
- Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
embryoconcepts.com
rational v emotional
joat
quotes. again.
I have no time to write anything real due to school, work and life in general, so here are a couple of quotes that made my day a little lighter:
If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
- P. G. Wodehouse
Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.
- Matt Groening
quote
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.
- Hermann Hesse
quote
We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.
- Sir Arthur Eddington
quotes
both are good today:
The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.
- Quentin Crisp
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- Aristotle
The Best Way to Solve a Problem: Give Up | Illuminated Mind
full article:
The Best Way to Solve a Problem: Give Up | Illuminated Mind.
- Give up trying to be cool.
- Give up your golden handcuffs.
- Give up wanting to be a famous musician, artist, architect, thinker, writer, whatever-it-is. Maybe it’s smarter to make your purpose to have an impact, instead.
- Give up wanting to be different for the sake of being unique.
- Give up trying to be perfect.
- Give up keeping relationships with people you don’t really like.
- Give up trying to be the center of attention.
- Give up trying to be important. (Focusing on community is usually more fulfilling.)
- Give up achieving a lot of ego-driven goals.
- Give up trying to be indie.
- Give up trying to popular.
- Give up trying to have a perfectly organized workspace and a zero inbox.
- Give up trying to be super happy all the time. Instead, settle for being peaceful.
- Give up needing a reason to share your love. Being alive is reason enough.
- Give up trying to be everything to everyone.
- Give up caring about being the smartest, best and fastest. At least don’t let your ego get caught up in it.
- Give up sacrificing your life for an expensive degree that makes you feel important.
- Give up trying to be ultra productive, especially if productivity is making you miserable.
- Give up caring about having a respectable job, a respectable resume, and a respectable life. Replace following a template, with freestyling life.
- Give up trying to constantly improve yourself. Sometimes too much self improvement can cause you to lose sight of the present.
- Give up caring about doing what works.
- Give up thinking you don’t have the time or skills to make your dreams a reality.
- Give up caring about knowing everything in advance before you take action. Put yourself on auto-response instead.
- Give up trying to always find interesting experiences and interesting things to do. Alternatively, be interesting and be interested.
- Give up trying to live up to the expectation of… yourself.
- Give up trying to have a flawless body, perfect face, or an impeccable wardrobe. Care more about beautifying your mind and being a person who takes beautiful actions.
my holidays
i’m kind of taken with the idea of shifting from the standard American holidays to those based purely on the solar/lunar cycle. 4 parties/celebrations a year: winter and summer solstice, spring and fall equinoxes. so, instead of this huge build up of festivities for xmas we should do something season appropriate on the following dates:
3/20/09 Vernal Equinox
6/21/09 Summer Solstice
9/22/09 Autumnal Equinox
12/21/09 Winter Solstice
trained
i often feel like i’ve missed the train on things-that i’m still staring in fascination at the tracks, while the train’s already on it’s way, and there’s no jumping on. there’s no way to catch up, there’ll never be another and that i’ve simply been left behind again, because i couldn’t get it together in time to be a part of something. i don’t mean this on just one or two things-i feel like i’ve missed out on most of the good things in life because i wasn’t timely. grad school? of course i can still go, but the fact that i didn’t go straight through high school to college to grad school is going to work against me when it comes time to make a career in academia. may someday actually want a family? well, sure, but it’s getting a little late now, and that’s not something to be rushed. got my shit together and am crafting a life i enjoy? well, yes, but look at how many years i’ve wasted…
yes, i’m only seeing the negative, not the fact that everything comes at the right time for everyone. i know that time for self-awareness isn’t actually a waste, but i just get so tired of feeling like i’m constantly just a step behind where i want to be. it’s that awful ‘grass is greener’ mentality pulling me down. and part of me that wants to keep me from trying-horrible negative trap. giving up before you start is what’s gotten me into some of these messes. this is a bit of a waste to even dwell on, since it’s all for stuff past, and i should be focusing on the future, right? gotta let go of feeling bad about things that i can’t change-just work harder in the future.
